CAMINO COUNTDOWN- DOG ENCOUNTERS OF THE CLOSE KIND!

Twice last week I had to step out into traffic and pretend I was a traffic cop, because some cute dog came running out to meet Vimy, and had no problem running right across the road toward us.  There is no way a dog was going to get killed in front of me, not on my watch.  Me, rather than the dog, I figured. I could live with that! Thankfully, all vehicles had plenty of time to stop.

When you hike with a dog, you can't help but have encounters, which leads to my highlight of the week, and my lowlight of the week. 

My LOWLIGHT: I had just passed a house where the German Shepherd tied up outside had been barking at Vimy constantly, straining at his leash, as we passed.  I had reached the far side of this property and was ready to turn around when the owner dashes out and yells at me "Can you get going where you are going!" WHAT A ..... candidate for "charm school". Definitely lacking in the social graces, I would say. Well, if he had said that to me thirty seconds earlier, I would have nodded and left Vimy's big "bomb" on his front lawn.  As it was, I had just stooped to pick it up.  Too bad!  So I  replied oh so calmly and loudly, "I am just picking up my dog's poop off your lawn."  It takes all kinds to make a world, doesn't it?

My HIGHLIGHT: I was alternating walking and jogging on a back road, when Vimy ran to make friends with a Black Lab. I stopped to chat for a few minutes with the young girl outside, eleven year old Olivia.  Then I resumed my run and the next thing I knew, she was biking beside me. We exchanged more pleasantries about ourselves.  When she asked me where I lived, I said I was really "homeless" at the moment, but staying in a friend's cottage until I leave on a hiking trip to Spain. Olivia didn't respond right away,  as she gave this information some thought.  Then she said, "I am sure if I asked my mother, she would let you stay with us".  Spoken straight from the heart of a child, bless her.

Another Camino tidbit, for those of you who might be thinking of doing this trek, pilgrimage, hike, or craziness, as my former 90 year old neighbour Lucy, calls it;

I have read on a Forum that you should never, ever put your backpack on a bed in a hostel (albergue). BEDBUGS will invade your backpack.  Ah... seems to me you shouldn't put your body on that bed either then?